Strikeforce's Roger Gracie hopes to clear out light-heavy division, move on to UFC

With the exodus of Strikeforce light-heavyweight champion Dan Henderson nearing reality, there’s a belt that could be vacant very soon.

And while Strikeforce 205-pounder Roger Gracie isn’t ready to begin a campaign for a title fight, he would like to make a trip to the UFC inescapable.

“I think there will be one point, hopefully, where I will have fought the top guys in my weight division and there will be nowhere else for me to fight,” Gracie told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com). “I will have to step up.”

Like many of the bookings that populate the promotion’s calendar, there’s uncertainty about the future of Strikeforce talent. Henderson appears headed to the UFC, and heavyweight champion Alistair Overeem is in negotiations to make his octagon debut possibly before the end of the year.

Gracie is among a handful of standout fighters who stand to benefit from Henderson’s exit. Light heavyweights Rafael “Feijao” Cavalcante, Gegard Mousasi, Keith Jardine and Ovince St. Preux could be within spitting distance of a title shot. If Strikeforce and UFC crossovers become a reality (or the two promotions merge), the champion is in a position to capitalize.

So Gracie’s road to the title may have gotten shorter, and a win over a former champ definitely wouldn’t diminish his prospects. But he’s undecided on whether something good will come of the recent shakeups.

“We’ll see,” he said. “The UFC, every single organization they bought they end up merging. We [don’t] know how long they’ll keep Strikeforce. They might keep it for a couple of years. They might kill it tomorrow. You never know.”

For now, he’s focused on his fight with Lawal. After undergoing knee surgery this past summer, Lawal hopes to return to form after a TKO loss to Cavalcante that stripped him of the belt.

Lawal brings top-shelf wrestling skills to the Sept. 10 fight, though Gracie believes he’ll try to strike his way to victory. Gracie, of course, is a highly decorated jiu-jitsu player.

“I think if he can be slippery and keep the fight standing, he’ll have a chance not to get submitted,” Gracie said. “But I think if we fight on the ground, his chances are not very good.”

Gracie is training at Renzo Gracie’s academy in New York City as the date nears, and while he’s surrounded by grapplers, his training hasn’t changed much compared to other fights.

“I think that I train less … in jiu-jitsu because he’s not a great jiu-jitsu player, and I’m sure I won’t have to worry about him trying to submit me,” he said.

As to what happens after the fight, Gracie said his long-term goals haven’t changed.

“I think it’s just (a matter of) getting ready to be the best fighter I can be,” he said. “Fight against the best guys and hopefully win them all, and one day I can look back when I retire and say I fought them all and beat them all. Now I can retire happy.”

And if that means retiring with a UFC belt around his waist, so be it.

The Latest

The man known for cranking submissions to the point of injury added eye-gouging to his repertoire. But is the controversy of Rousimar Palhares too essential to his bizarre, awful appeal for his employers to take any meaningful action against him?

Ronda Rousey’s statistical greatness has already ventured into uncharted territory – just six fights into her UFC career. Check out all the post-fight facts, including Rousey’s latest achievements, about UFC 190.